Just got back from hunting Rios in western Oklahoma. This was my first time out there hunting rios. The birds would not respond to calls at all (even had some run the other way) and they seemed to be leery of decoys. We managed to get a few but it was by sitting on travel routes like bowhunting deer. Normally I would call sparingly while sitting but I was even scared to do that in the last few days.
My question is that normal? Did I just catch them at a bad time? The birds were supposedly not hunted before us (other than 1 hunter on 1/2 day).
Do you have any tips on hunting rios that I can use next time? Do they normally respond to calls?
I normally hunt easterns in big woods so calling and working the birds is the way I am used to hunting.
It sounds like bad timing. We had a Texas trip that sounded like that. The year before that, they played along just fine.
I'm out here in NW Oklahoma now, birds are doing the same for me, not concerned with any calling, did have 3 jakes whip up on my jake decoy.
Looks like I'm headed home empty handed tomorrow.
Its been fun though.
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So yall think it was a timing thing. We too early or too late?
I am hunting Rio's here in California...
I kinda' half laugh to myself when someone asks what to do when they are henned up... They are henned up from opening day on where I hunt them. So they are either paired up, or losing interest for my season.
I just started getting back into hunting them after a sabbatical, but I have killed just over 20 of them... I have only killed two in the early morning just after they fly off the roost...
Either wait till the hens leave them, or know where they are going and be there. They gobble like crazy at your calling as they walk the other way...
Everyone tells me how easy Rio's are, and I keep thinking those Easterns must be impossible... Now, of course, there are those days when they will come in on a string to two garbage cans being rubbed together, but I think they are challenging enough for me.
Now... The day before or the day after the season, I can get them to land on my head with my calling.
I would say bad timing. I hunted them for 5 years in Kansas and they always did just the opposite of what you described.
I agree with the bad timing. The Rios here in Texas typically respond well to calling. They do go through a timeframe where it seems like they will gobble but not come in because of being henned up. They seem easier to call in during this time in the late afternoon.
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I had always heard how they like to gobble, but these birds were tight lipped for the most part. We had the most luck getting where they wanted to be and wait.